Alonzo Randell Horton

Staff Sergeant, U. S. Army

Silver Star

GENERAL ORDERS:
Headquarters, 3d Infantry Division, General Orders No. 387 (November 24, 1945)
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Staff Sergeant Alonzo R. Horton (ASN: 38515774), United States Army, for gallantry in action while serving with Company C, 274th Infantry Regiment.
On 6 January 1945, when heavy enemy fire killed or wounded all the non-commissioned officers of a rifle platoon during an attack on Philipsburg, France, Sergeant Horton, a light machine gun squad leader, took command of the platoon.
Despite enemy shells that burst 20 yards from him, he reorganized the eleven surviving members of the platoon, and initiated an assault that cleared half of the town. While leading an attack on an enemy pillbox that was holding up further advance, Sergeant Horton killed four Germans in a ditch.
Continuing on through intense automatic fire that gradually wiped out the Platoon to the last man, he single-handedly attacked the pillbox with hand grenades, killing six more Germans and forcing twenty-two to surrender. As a result of his courageous action, his Company was able to capture the objective.